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As a young schoolgirl, Öba Minako (1930-2007) was totally absorbed by mukashi-banashi (ancient folktales), otogi-zöshi (classical Japanese fairy tales), and otogi-banashi (fairy tales in modem Japanese) as well as classical Western fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and the Grimm brothers. Almost half a century later, as an accomplished writer, she returned to her childhood passion and began to translate a series of both otogi-banashi and mukashi-banashi into modem Japanese for children and adults. Her narratives often defy conventional categorization because of this lifelong fascination with the classical genres.1 Öba's literary imagination and penetrating gaze at characters' inner demons, foibles, and emotional struggles never wavers because of her intuitive knowledge that fairy tales always encourage "the critical intelligence to dwell on that which is missing," to borrow the words of Vivian Gomick (167).
In 1976, at the age of 34, Öba wrote one of the most provocative modem fairy tales, "Yamauba no bishö" (The Smile of a Mountain Witch), an allegorical tale of a legendary mountain witch transported into a modem society; exactly a decade later she published a retelling of Japan's oldest literary fairy tale, "Taketori monogatari" (The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, ca. 909).2 Although my focus in this article is on "Yamauba no bishö," I would like to begin with "Taketori monogatari," a personal favorite of Öba's, to show how she chose to inject a sociocultural feminist voice into her 1986 rendition.
Modem Feminist Consciousness of the Moon Princess
The otogi-zöshi "Taketori monogatari" tells of the destiny and the wit of a beautiful girl from the moon, Kaguya-hime, who is pursued by five ardent suitors, but we see none of the traditional ending found in "Briar Rose" or "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," in which one of the suitors-or a heroic prince-succeeds, after a series of ordeals, in wedding a princess. On the contrary, the five noblemen in pursuit of Kaguya-hime are exposed for their chicanery and incompetence, ending up as the butt of ridicule, reminiscent of the narcissistic king in "The Emperor's New Clothes." No Prince Charming rescues a Snow White or a Sleeping Beauty so as to ultimately keep her "as his dearest possession."3
As Öba once observed in "Watashi to "Taketori monogatari' to Tse monogatari'" ("The Tale of the Bamboo...